October 10, 2006Rumsfeld: Time For An Afghanistan Victory Lap!Rumsfeld, writing in the Washington Post on Saturday: Yet from halfway around the world -- with but a few weeks' notice -- coalition forces were charged with securing a landlocked, mountainous country that history had dubbed the "graveyard" of great powers. And now, reality: The top NATO commander in Afghanistan warned Sunday that if the lives of Afghans don't improve within the next six months, a majority of them could switch their allegiance to the Taliban. Gen. David Richards, a British officer who commands NATO's 32,000 troops, told the Associated Press that he would like to have 2,500 more troops in the south of the country to help speed up reconstruction projects. General Richards said this area, which has seen intense fighting between NATO and Taliban forces, is "broadly stabilized," but if the NATO, US, and Afghan governments don't take this time to start reconstruction projects, 70 percent of the country could decide to back the Taliban. "They will say, 'We do not want the Taliban but then we would rather have that austere and unpleasant life that might involve than another five years of fighting,'" Richards said in an interview. I'm happy Donald Rumsfeld believes "rising violence in southern Afghanistan is real." That's just swell. But before Rumsfeld gets too carried away with his fifth year anniversary Afghanistan valedictory, he might instead snap back to reality some. There are still battles being won (or lost), key strategic points being taken (or given back), and enemy forces (and indeed, our own) being killed, to use his verbiage. We are still very much at war in Afghanistan, and not in a "post-battle" phase as Rumsfeld risibly scribbles in the Washington Post. But let's put all this aside. Why is our Secretary of Defense wasting time penning such piffle (there is the inevitable mention of schools opened, health care access up by 72%, and other data points that are mostly irrelevant, and conveniently omit, say, that Afghanistan could still be lost, as certain areas in Pakistan have been increasingly), not to mention as Iraq melts down before our eyes? Why is he still in his job? Who will take the Decider aside, and put a stop to the dismal fraud that is Donald Rumsfeld remaining in office? As Andrew Sullivan puts it succintly, and often: Fire. Rumsfeld. Now. My God, even Karl Rove must be able to see the light on this, one would think, no? Oh wait, it would be an admission of failure or some such. Well let me clue you in fellas, the failures are huge, and they are erupting all around us, quite literally of late. They're not big secrets or anything. Let's try to turn things around, instead of going in bunker-mode. To at least tentatively begin the hard work of doing so, get a new Secretary of Defense in office--without further delay.
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While it's quite possible Rumsfeld will never leave [until Bush does], it seems safe to say it's guranteed NOT to happen before the elections. Not unless Rumsfeld chokes on a falafel or some other karmic happening. I'm not sure if that's implicit when you say "without further delay" or not, but I'm afraid it should be... Posted by: TG at October 10, 2006 03:31 AM | Permalink to this commentOh, God, please, no more "Fire. Rumsfeld. Now." Whose opinion do you think you're changing? Did you help put Rumsfeld's boss into office? Is this penance for your sin? It's not working. I admire your ability to realize and admit you were wrong, but do you realize the extent of the damage your support of this man has done? How could you not see in 2000 what a delusional fool this man was? He told you then he wasn't interested in nation-building and still you trusted him to build a democracy in Iraq? He subverted democracy in his own country and you trusted him to build it in the sands of Iraq? Did you not see the rush to war, the stiff-arming of all opposition, the stifling of dissent. Have you not seen that mad rush before and seen how it ended? Posted by: wtf at October 10, 2006 03:46 AM | Permalink to this commentOne problem with Bush firing Rumsfeld is that Bush has no obvious candidate who would take the position. Seriously, who would want to take over the DoD in the waning days of a lame-duck administration to try to clean up Rumsfeld's and Bush's (and Cheney's) mess? Posted by: raj at October 10, 2006 12:41 PM | Permalink to this commentA few thoughts: 1. We could do worse than Rumsfeld. Really. Although on nearly every scale there is a theoretcical absolute worst possible situation beyond which it is not possible to go, this is like zero degrees Kelvin: not seen on Earth. And anyone who wants to bet that the President can't make things worse by going with his gut on a question like who ought to be in charge of the war hasn't been paying any attention at all. 2. Obviously, nothing changes before the midterms, and if Democrats gain in the Senate, the risk of an ugly confirmation battle is too high. Any nominee is going to have to go chapter and verse through the failures of the current Secretary, and lay out plans to fix this or that problem. And it won't be some unhinged moonbat with "BDS" criticizing six years of policy, but the President's own man. It would destroy the Administration. 3. It's troubling, and amusing, to see the role that calls for Rumsfeld's termination plays among disillusioned supporters of the Administration. Sullivan's response to Zakaria is a perfect example -- if only we could get rid of this guy, we could make something out of this mess. My response is to borrow from Yglesias: I'd be happy to buy a $2 million apartment if someone else paid the $2 million. There's no pony. The Administration is a collossal failure. Supporting it, at any point in time, was a mistake. Either Al Gore or John Kerry, both of whom would have presided over divided governments, would have done better by any measure. Why? Because they would have (a) appointed grown-ups, lacking the protection a cult of personality affords for the appointment of cronies and (b) been subject to instant and constant accountability from the other branches and the press. Neither would have had Cheney or Rumsfeld, or anyone like them. John Yoo's views would not have prevailed over Colin Powell's -- to attach the names of persons to ideas. (And this is the bottom line: you people picked a guy who would choose the views of a John Yoo over those of a Colin Powell on the question of how any aspect of a war ought to be waged.) Posted by: CharleyCarp at October 10, 2006 02:09 PM | Permalink to this commentSo much for those last throes, eh? Posted by: Sharr at October 10, 2006 07:24 PM | Permalink to this commentwtf, I despise everything about the Bush administration - always have. I never voted for him and engaged in debates aplenty with friends and associates about its horrendous policies. (Remember, Zathras?) And while Greg supported this administration (twice), clearly, he no longer does and is using what influence he has in the blogosphere to encourage change. I find his analysis and commentary about the remarkable incompetence of this administration sound, informative, and helping in even the smallest way to open the eyes of people who still think we're better off with Bush. I have neither experience nor education in foreign policy or government. Only a deep concern for the dead end road this country is barreling down. I visit this site often precisely because Greg USED to support this administration and its policies. If you haven’t noticed, you are (and have been) preaching to the choir. I suggest you start trying to convert the 33% who don’t think Bush is an abysmal failure. Greg’s firmly in the majority. Let's see General Richards. what aspect of the Taliban, are people going to flock to, Sharia law, no education for women, stoning They will not fire Rumsfeld because confirmation hearings for a replacement would be a political disaster. It's still hard for me to completely believe, but they really don't care, at all, about the effectiveness of their policies or personnel. In fact, their reaction is invariably, when faced with a policy or personnel failure, is to lie about what happened to minimize the political fallout. While that tendency exists in any administration, I've never before seen it be the entire motivating force. But it is now. Posted by: jayackroyd at October 11, 2006 04:25 PM | Permalink to this comment |
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